ACT V
Scene 1
Castle on Zion. A large Audience-Chamber, as in Act I. Throne and tribunal.
Herod. Salome.
Herod.
An end, an end to this! The Inquisition
I’ve ordered and will execute its sentence.
I, I whom once each fever set a-shaking
E’en though her maid-in-waiting it befel,
’Tis I myself that weapons death against her.
Be that enough! and if your zeal not yet
Allow you rest, it will o’ershoot its target.
I shall be thinking that ’tis hate alone
Speaks from your mouth, and you will meet as witness
Rejection, though I shall admit as such
Each several candle that has cast its flame,
Each several flower that has shed its scent.
Salome.
Herod, I’ll not deny the truth. I have
Ere now spied on her faults and painted them
With heightened hue as you enhanced the virtues
That you discovered in her. Was the pride
Flaunted upon your mother and me whenever
She crossed our path, was this a ground for love?
As being of a loftier race she bore her
That never had awaked another thought
Within my mind than this—“Wherefore exists
The bulky book that tells the hero-deeds
The Maccabeans wrought unto our folk?
She bears the chronicle upon her face.”
Herod.
Your will is to refute me, and you seal
The sentence I have passed.
Salome.
Nay, hear me out!
’Twas so, I’ll not deny it. But if now
I’ve said more than I know and think and feel,
Yea, if I am not moved by sister’s pity
To lock the half of what I could have told you
Even now within my breast, then may my child—
You’ll grant I love it well—as many years
Live out as hairs are counted on his skull
And every day as much of sorrow bring him
As it shall have of minutes, yea, of seconds.
Herod.
A fearsome oath!
Salome.
And yet it falls from me
More lightly than this word—“The night is black.”
E’en though the eye were jaundiced, ’tis past credence
That jaundiced eye were paired by jaundiced ear,
Yea, and by instinct, heart, and every manner
Of organ that is buttress to the senses.
And this time all are tuned so fine together
That they could never clash in contradiction,
Yea, and had God upon that festal night
Called unto me from out the heights of Heaven,
“Say from what evil I shall give your earth
Deliverance—you have the choice!” I would not
Have named the pest, nay, but your wicked wife.
I shuddered at her; she would taint my mood
As though I’d reached a demon out of Hell
Amid the pitchy black by human hand
And he had met me with derision, stepping
Before me in his proper shape of fright
From out the stolen frame of flesh and blood
And grinned and mowed at me through twisting flames.
Nor did I shudder thus alone. The Roman,
Yea, even the ironside Titus felt recoil.
Herod.
True, true, and he weighs heavier than yourself,
For just as he loves no one, he hates no one,
And just he is like ghosts devoid of blood.
Now leave me, for I am awaiting him.
Salome.
I vow this dance shall never be forgotten
In which, responsive to the music’s beat,
She trod the floor as though she knew for sure
That you lay underneath. By God, I would
I were not forced to say it, for I know
How inly you, who gave her mother, sister,
And what not for her victims, must rebel.
And yet it was so.
[Exit.
Scene 2
Herod alone.
Herod.
Titus said to me
The very same. Myself I saw enough,
And she is right. I gave to her a sister,
A mother almost, for her victims. Would they
Not counterpoise the brother whom she lost?
In her eyes they do not.
[Enter Titus.
Scene 3
Herod. Titus.
Herod.
Well, Titus, well?
Admits Soemus——?
Titus.
What you know. Not more.
Herod.
Naught of——?
Titus.
Oh no! He leapt to feet as raving
If I but cast the lightest hint thereat.
Herod.
I could expect it.
Titus.
“Never could,” he answered,
“A wife like yours have lived, and never was
A man so little worth the precious jewel
That God vouchsafed to him——”
Herod.
As I myself!
Yes, yes! “He did not know the worth of pearls
Wherefore I took them from him,” said the thief.
I know not if that helped.
Titus.
“Her heart was nobler
Than gold.”
Herod.
And so he knows it! Swimming-brained
He lauds the wine. Does not that furnish proof
That he has drunk.14 And what veneer used he
To coat it? Why betrayed he my commission
To her?
Titus.
From loathing, as he said.
Herod.
From loathing?
And he ne’er gave the loathing words to me?
Titus.
Would not the event have been his bane? Could you
Have granted life unto the stockish servant
If once he had received from you command
And pushed it from him?
Herod.
Why, in such a case,
Was’t not enough to leave it unfruitioned?
Titus.
Yes; but if he went further he has done it
Perchance because he deemed you as one lost
And now was fain to have the Queen’s good grace
A bargain at your cost for his own profit,
Since it was in her hands his future lay.
Herod.
No, Titus, no! Soemus was the man
To risk the daring bid in his own person
That makes another’s grace a needless prop.
For that sole cause I gave it him. I thought:—
“’Tis done for self if ’tis not done for you.”
Yes, had he been a lesser than he is
And had he not in Rome friends in such plenty
I could have thought it true. But now—no, no,
There was one only ground.
Titus.
And yet he’ll not
Confess that one.
Herod.
He were not what he is
If he should do it, for he knows full well
What follows that, and hopes now through his lying
To waken in my breast one last misdoubting
Such as will guard, if not perchance his head,
Then hers before the coming bulk of death.
He errs, though. That misdoubting lacks its sting.
Had I no cause to punish what she did
I’d punish that which she became and is.
Ha, had she ever been what she has seemed
She never could have donned this shifting slough
And I’ll take vengeance on the duplex Thing.
Yes, Titus, yes, I swear it by the key
Of Paradise that she holds in her hands,
By all beatitude that she erewhile
Has granted me, that she can grant me still,
Yea, by this instant’s shudder which monitions
That I in her will blot myself to nothing,
I make an end howe’er the matter stand.
Titus.
It is too late to make the cry of warning
“Give not the order!” and I know myself
No means of leading this to issue clear
And therefore cannot dare to say “Hold! Hold!”
[Enter Joab.
Scene 4
The Same. Joab.
Herod (to Joab).
Are they assembled?
Joab.
Long since. From the prison
I must announce to you what seems of weight.
We cannot bring this Sameas to such lengths
That he’ll disbody soul.
Herod.
I gave command
He should be put to torture till he do it.
(To Titus.) This man had sworn, I’ve heard, that he would kill him
Could he not make me in his own sweet likeness,
Which process is to break what he has named
The heathenish notions in me. Since he’s failed
I now use force on him his oath to keep,
His death’s a right good thousandfold deserved.
Titus.
I had myself been urgent for his death,
For me he has reviled and Rome in me
And that can everywhere be granted pardon
But here among this stubborn-stomached folk.
Herod (to Joab).
Well then?
Joab.
Your words were followed to the letter,
But it has helped to no success. The headsman
Plied him with almost every pang, and more,
Grimmed into spite by such unwincing front,
Which he misread as scorn, he dealt him wounds.
But ’tis as though he’d given a tree a flogging,
As though ’twere nerveless wood that took his slashing.
There stands the old man dead to feel of pain,
He sings, instead of shrieking out, and clutching
To get the knife that’s held before his eyes,
He sings the psalm which the Three Men of yore
Sang in the fiery oven, and he lifts
At every added pang his voice the louder,
And when he bates it prophesies forsooth!
Herod (aside).
Such is their breed. Yes—will they e’er be other?
Joab.
Then he cries out as though for things of wonder
Beyond the threshold he had got an eye
For every wound that he can count. “Now is
The time fulfilled and in the manger-crib
The Virgin-Mother of the stem of David
E’en at this hallowed moment lays a Child
Destined to topple thrones, awake the dead,
Tear stars from heaven and from eternity
Unto eternity o’erlord the world.”
Meanwhile the folk in thousands are assembled,
Hang on the very doors and hear it all,
Believing that Elijah’s flaming chariot
Will sink to earth and bear him like the prophet
On skyward path. The headsman’s menial even
Shrank back and did not cut him with new wounds,
But held the old together.
Herod.
Then he shall
Be killed upon the spot and to the folk
Be shown when he is dead. Thereafter bid
The Judges to present them and——
Joab.
The Queen!
[Exit.
Herod.
You, Titus, shall be seated at my side.
I send her mother too an invitation
That she at least fail not her child as witness.
[Enter Aaron, and the other Five Judges. Alexandra and Salome follow. Joab appears immediately after.
Scene 5
The Same. Aaron. The Five Judges. Alexandra. Salome. Afterwards, Mariamne.
Alex.
My King and Lord, I give you lowly greeting.
Herod.
My thanks to you.
[He seats himself on the throne. Titus places himself at his side. Then The Judges seat themselves at a signal in a semicircle round the tribunal.
Alex. (while this is being done).
The fate of Mariamne
I sunder from my own, and save myself,
Like to a torch, to break in future blaze.
[She sits next to Salome.
Herod (to The Judges).
You know why I have had you summoned here.
Aaron.
In deepest pain do we appear before you.
Herod.
I do not doubt it. With my house and me
You’re closely bonded all as friend and kin;
What hurts me must hurt you. You will rejoice,
Touching the Queen, if you—(stops short) forgive me that!
You will rejoice if you should not condemn her,
If you may send her, cleared before her spouse,
Again unto my house, not Golgotha,
Yet will you not, faced with the uttermost,
Quake marrowless at its necessity.
Since luck and evil luck with me you share
You share my shame and honour alike with me.
Then to your duty!
[He gives Joab a sign. Joab goes out and appears again with Mariamne. A long pause.
Herod.
Aaron!
Aaron.
Queen, we have
A heavy task. You stand before your judges.
Mar.
Before my judges, yes. Before you too.
Aaron.
Do you repudiate this court?
Mar.
I see
A higher here. If that allow your questions
The answering word from me, then I shall speak,
And hold my peace if such the same forbid.
I scarcely see you clear, for there behind you
Stand ghosts that gaze augustly, dumb, and earnest;
They are the great Forefathers of my stem.
Three nights I saw them ere this hour in dream,
Now too they come by day to me, and well
I know what it must mean when thus assembled
The Dead already ope for me their ranks
And when what lives and breathes for me is pale.
See there behind yon throne on which a king
In seeming sits, stands Judas Maccabaeus—
Hero of Heroes, look thou not so darkly
Upon me from on high! Thou shalt be glad of me!
Alex.
Curb your defiance, Mariamne!
Mar.
Mother!
Farewell! (To Aaron.) Say wherefore I am here accused.
Aaron.
The accusation’s this—your King and Lord
You have deceived. (To Herod.) ’Tis so?
Mar.
Deceived? Ah, folly!
Did he not find me in the way he thought
That he would find me, at the dance and play?
And did I don, when I had heard the death-news,
My mourning-raiment? Did I shed my tears?
And did I tear dishevelled locks? Then had I
Deceived him; but these things I have not done,
And can bring solid proof. Salome, speak!
Herod.
I found her as she says. She does not need
To look about for other witnesses.
But I had never, never had such thought.
Mar.
Ne’er had such thought? Yet feigned and had the headsman
Set close upon my back? That cannot be.
As I at parting stood before his spirit
E’en so at our reunion he has found me.
Therefore I must deny that I deceived.
Herod (breaking into wild laughter).
Nay, she has not deceived because there’s naught
She did but what foreshadowing Sentience,
All praise to her, dusked warning Deity,
Caused me to feel. (To Mariamne.) Woman, this fits you well!
But build not overfast on this, that I
With peace and happiness have lost my strength;
Perchance some jot has still survived for vengeance
And—e’en as boy I ever sent a bird
A chasing dart if it outflew my range.
Mar.
Speak not of sentience foreshadowing, speak
Of fear alone. You trembled at the thing
That you deserved. It is the way of man.
You can no longer trust the sister, since you
Have done to death the brother; all that’s grossest
Your sullying mind imputes and thinks that I
Must give response, yea, and out-Herod you.
Speak truth, or did you always, when you marched
In honourable open war to death,
Set headsmen close behind my back? You’re silent.
Good then! Since you’re so deeply sensitive
On what in me is seemly; since your fear
Schoolmasters me on duty, then will I
Now at long last fulfil this holy duty.
Therefore I sunder me from you for aye.
Herod.
Answer! Do you confess or not confess?
[Mariamne is silent.
(To the Judges.) You see that all confession fails. Also
I’ve not the proofs as such that you will need.
But on a murderer once I saw you pass
The doom of death because the slain man’s jewel
Was found on him. It was no help that he
Had pointed to his cleanly-washen hands,
And none too that he swore the dead man gave it
As gift. You had the sentence executed.
Good then! It stands thus here. She has the jewel
That proves to me more undeniably
Than ever any tongue of man could do it
She shamed me with the abhorred of all abhorred.
A miracle must not alone have happened.
It must in other case have been repeated,
And miracles were ne’er repeated yet.15
[Mariamne makes a gesture.
’Tis true she’ll speak just as the murderer spoke—
“’Twas given her for a gift!” And she may dare it
Because a chamber, like a wood, is dumb.
But were you tempted thus to give her credit
Then I will set in scale my inmost feeling
And probing of each possibility
As counterbalance, and demand her death,—
Her death, I say! no more this nauseous goblet
I’ll empty which her proud defiance fills,
Nor day on day be gadflied with the riddle
If such a pride’s the most repellent face
Of Innocence, or the most brazen mask
Of Sin. I’ll rescue me from out this whirlpool
Boiling with hate and love ere I be choked,
And be the cost as high as e’er it may.
Therefore away with her! You dally still?
It’s settled! What? I missed the telling point?
Then speak! I know that silence is my part,
But speak! speak! Sit not there like Solomon
Between the mothers with the pair of children.
Her case is clear; you need no more for sentence
Than what you see! A woman that stands there
As she does, earns her death though she were clean
Of every guilt. And still you never speak?
Will you perchance first have the proof how fast
Is my conviction that she has deceived?
Such I will give you through Soemus’ head
And that at once.
[He goes up to Joab.
Titus (rising).
I say this is not trial.
Your pardon!
[Is about to go.
Mar.
Roman, stay! I recognise it,
Who can repudiate it if not I?
[Titus seats himself again. Alexandra rises.
Mar. (approaching her, and in a subdued voice).
You’ve wrought on me much harm and never has
Your meed of happiness by mine been measured.
If I’m to pardon that, be silent now.
You alter naught; my will is firm and fixed.
[Alexandra seats herself again.
And now, my Judges?
Aaron (to the other Judges).
Let that man rise up
Who deems the sentence of the King unjust!
[All remain seated.
You therefore all resolve yourselves for death?
(Rising.) Queen, you are here condemned to suffer death.
Have you aught still to answer?
Mar.
If the headsman
Is not bespoke already and by now
Awaits me with his axe, then I would crave
A final word with Titus ere my death.
(To Herod.) It is not wont to give the last request
Of dying men refusal. Can you grant it,
Then let my life be added unto yours.
Herod.
The Headsman is not yet bespoke. I can.
And since you promise me eternity
As my reward, I must, and more, I will.
(To Titus.) This woman is an awesome thing!
Titus.
She stands
Before a man as never woman should;
Make then an end.
Salome (advancing).
Oh do it! For your mother
Is sick unto the death. She will be whole
If spared to see it.
Herod (to Alexandra).
Did you not say aught?
Alex.
No.
[Herod gazes long at Mariamne. Mariamne remains dumb.
Herod.
Die! (To Joab.) I lay it in your hands.
[Goes off quickly. Salome follows him.
Alex. (looking after Herod).
I have
An arrow still for you. (To Mariamne.) You wished it so!
Mar.